A Delicate Truth

Paperback | April 29, 2014

A counterterrorist operation, code-named Wildlife, is being mounted on the British crown colony of Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms buyer. Its authors: an ambitious Foreign Office minister, a private defence contractor who is also his bosom friend, and a shady American CIA operative of the evangelical far right. So delicate is the operation that even the minister’s private secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it.

Three years later, a disgraced special forces soldier delivers a message from the dead. Was Operation Wildlife the success it was cracked up to be—or a human tragedy that was ruthlessly covered up? Summoned by Sir Christopher “Kit” Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house and closely observed by Kit’s daughter, Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience and duty to his service. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent?

A counterterrorist operation, code-named Wildlife, is being mounted on the British crown colony of Gibraltar. Its purpose: to capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms buyer. Its authors: an ambitious Foreign Office minister, a private defence contractor who is also his bosom friend, and a shady American CIA operative of the evange...

John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. His recent novels include The Constant Gardener, Absolute Friends, The Mission Song, ...

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Reviews

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Kayla from
BrilliantLe Carre is an amazingly consistent author in that he manages to turn out books that are more and more captivating. This is another haunting story about what happens when a government operation goes wrong, and the characters are left to deal with the fallout and wonder what the truth really is. Wonderful book.

Date published: 2016-11-12

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Paul_in_Ottawa from
A timely novelA brilliant book. The timeline shifts around but in an organic way. The book has to be one of Le Carre's best in years. The story deals with an undercover operation gone wrong and the ensuing cover-up. The characters are well drawn and the moral point of view clear. It is a timely novel on the subject of hidden government operations and the lies the public are told.

Date published: 2014-06-25

Rated 1 out of
5 by
Sheila_White from
confussionNot my usual type of book but it was a free reads book, and they ask if you can write a review of it so that the giveaways can continue. That being said I found it to be a very confusing book as you had to really follow along closly so that you wouldn't miss anything and so I found that it isn't a book or authour I would read again unless I get it as a free read flag

Date published: 2013-07-31

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Editorial Reviews

“At the moment a new generation is stumbling upon his work, le Carré is still writing at something close to the top of his game… le Carré has not lost his ability to sketch, in a line or two, an entire character.” - New York Times"Le Carré is back at full power with a book that draws on a career's worth of literary skill and international analysis. Le Carré will almost certainly follow Greene in being denied the Nobel prize for literature, but no other writer has charted – pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers – the public and secret histories of his times, from the second world war to the 'war on terror.'" - The Guardian“The bewitching nuances of Le Carré are all there, for this is writing of such quality that – as Robert Harris puts it – it will be read in one hundred years. Le Carré was never a spy- turned-writer, he was a writer who found his canvas in espionage, as Dickens did in other worlds. The two men deserve comparison.” - Daily Mail“Le Carré is as recognisable a writer as Dickens or Austen, with an often-imitated but never rivalled cast of seedy spies, false lovers, public schoolboys struggling with guilt, and charming but immoral leaders of the brutal establishment. Here he is again at 81, with his baroque characters and moral disgust intact in A Delicate Truth. ...This is vintage Le Carré and highly enjoyable. He is the master of the tightly crafted, interlocked plot, with characters who blow smoke, cause trouble and have chaotic affairs.” - Financial Times"I think he has easily burst out of being a genre writer and will be remembered as perhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain. He will have charted our decline and recorded the nature of our bureaucracies like no one else has. But that's just been his route into some profound anxiety in the national narrative. Most writers I know think le Carré is no longer a spy writer. He should have won the Booker Prize a long time ago. It's time he won it and it's time he accepted it. He's in the first rank." - Ian McEwan, winner of the Man Booker Prize“As another exercise in the patented Le Carré formula for espionage novels, it succeeds admirably - the narrative drive and the workings of suspense are very strong and never let up. The language is crisp, the details not excessive for the most part, the occasional tip for armchair sleuths enlightening…we can still be grateful for what we have in such well-crafted specimens of [le Carré’s] art as A Delicate Truth.” - National Post“Le Carré is now 81, but his writing is as fresh and perceptive as ever…This is a very fine book. Read it as a thriller. Read it as a tract for our times. In either case you will not be disappointed.” - Waterloo Record